Background. The DAF Battle Network is the integrated system-of-systems connecting sensor, effector, and logistics systems enabling better situational awareness, faster operational decisions, and decisive direction to the force. It integrates roughly 50 programs of record across the department, ensuring resilient decision advantage needed by the Air Force, Space Force, Joint, and Coalition forces.  

Situation. Enterprise IT, warfighting systems, and cyber systems managed across Command, Control, and Communications Battle Management (C3BM) programs are being developed simultaneously and require a unified, data-centric security framework that spans the entire DBN.

Presentation Overview. This session presents a prototype Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) cybersecurity framework that directly addresses this challenge by embedding security into the system model itself — transforming static compliance artifacts into a living, testable, and continuously authorized security architecture. Rather than treating cybersecurity as a documentation exercise bolted onto program delivery, our approach makes the MBSE model the authoritative source of security truth across the C3BM portfolio, enabling automated evidence generation, real-time risk assessment, and continuous Authorization to Operate (cATO) across all program boundaries.

The framework is structured as a federated kill web security model spanning three critical layers of the DAF Battle Network: Enterprise IT and business systems, terrestrial networks including SD-WAN and core network infrastructure, and the Space Force satellite operations ground segment. Each domain model captures assets, data flows, trust boundaries, threat scenarios, and security control mappings using custom SysML stereotypes developed specifically for the DAF Battle Network context. A federation integration layer connects all three domain models, enabling cross-domain attack path analysis, mission impact assessment, and enterprise-wide security posture visibility that no individual program currently possesses.

Benefits. The Common Reference Architecture for the DAF Battle Network can be a living model — one that spans all C3BM programs, eliminates duplicative security efforts, automates the path to continuous authorization, and gives warfighters and program leadership alike the unified security picture they need to operate with confidence across every domain of the kill web.